Pretty pointless. If they wanted to distance themselves from the geeky fanboy image in an attempt to prove that SF is much more than that, then doing something about their programming would’ve been the first place to start. Clearly, this decision means they’re not actually interested in SF at all, but what will make them a few $$ more. If they left the name and worked on the programming they could’ve said ‘see, this is what SciFi can really be’.

â€œWhen we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how youâ€™d text it,â€ Mr. Howe said. â€œIt made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.â€

i salute Mr. Howe’s commitment to self-parody

About Jeff VanderMeer

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Jeff VanderMeer's most recent fiction is the NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), released in 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Foreign rights have sold in 17 countries and the movie rights have been acquired by Paramount Pictures/Scott Rudin Productions. His latest nonfiction books include Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (Abrams Image). His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Atlantic.com, Vulture.com, and the Los Angeles Times. VanderMeer recently taught at the Yale Writers’ Conference and has lectured at MIT and the Library of Congress. You can contact him at pressinfo at vandermeercreative.com. (Author photo by Kyle Cassidy.) More...